Hillary Rodham Clinton started her journey into US politics as a determined student activist at Yale Law School, where she was marked as a passionate public speaker. There she also met her future husband Bill Clinton, whose political career will be entwined into hers. Her footstep into the national arena was when at the young age of 26 she was appointed as a member of the Legal Services Corporation board for the post-Watergate investigation.
Before launching her diplomatic career, she delivered a legendary speech at the 1995 United Nations World Congress on Women in Beijing, which put women’s rights on the global agenda. That was a landmark in a long path of her activity to advance women.
In the national arena, she is credited with promoting protections against domestic abuse, improving healthcare for women, and supporting equal pay policies. On the international scale, she established the first federal Office of Global Women’s Issues. Nonetheless, her activity was also criticized for focusing on white, middle-class, and educated women.
After her husband was elected as US President, she juggled between the supportive-partner role, various scandals, and her own professional path. Clinton was elected twice as a New York Senator – the only time in history when a First Lady serves in public office while in the White House.
After losing the presidential battle to Barack Obama in 2008, she was appointed as his Secretary of State. In her role as “Ambassador of US” she traveled to 112 countries, more than any other secretary of state.
In 2016 she became the first woman to win a major US party’s presidential nomination and was the first female to run for the presidency. At the end of a heroic campaign, Clinton lost the elections to Donald Trump.
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